How to put focus to IE

**keymuu** · 11-03-2012, 07:21 AM

Hi !

I'm new to this forum and have a problem that I haven't been able to solve by searching around the internet.
I need to put the focus to MS Internet Explorer but have not yet find the solution.
It is quite easy to put focus to Excel like this:

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So what could you put instead of XLMAIN to bring the focus on IE,
Where could one find a list of short names where also XLMAIN is a member?

Have not been able to find anything that would function correctly and referring to IE,
for example "'IEFrame" does not work and that is also the only thing I have found so far.

In my case IE is open and there is not a need to open it, just to put the focus there.

Thank you in advance
keymuu

**HSV** · 11-03-2012, 10:37 AM

Maybe,

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**keymuu** · 11-04-2012, 04:15 AM

Thank you Harry,

AppActivate ("Microsoft excel") this does not do anything, runs smoothly over this
however
AppActivate ("Windows Internet explorer") this triggers run-time error 5, invalid procedure call or argument

Can't understand why such a trivial thing can be so difficult to accomplish, or maybe
one could say "welcome to the Microsoft world" ???

With kind regards
keymuu

**HSV** · 11-04-2012, 07:08 AM

Hello Keymuu,

It works fine to me in Windows XP with Excel 2007.
Are there differend program names??
The name in the code is the same as the name on top of the program.

**abousetta** · 11-04-2012, 07:21 AM

I've used AutoIT to help me identify names before. Try something like this:

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**keymuu** · 11-04-2012, 01:01 PM

Hi again!

thank you abousetta but that code does not put focus on IE,
maybe it does work in your pc, but not in my (Lenovo T61).
It runs without errors but do not change focus to IE,
the focus does not change in any way

I'm using Windows XP and Office 2007 if that does matter at all.

regards
keymuu

**abousetta** · 11-04-2012, 06:20 PM

This seems to be working for me:

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Maybe you want ShowWindow instead. I have commented that line out.

abousetta

**keymuu** · 11-05-2012, 05:20 AM

Thank you abousetta,

thank you indeed, you are a real VBA wizard....

Here are a few comments about this all (set focus to IE):

lIEHwnd = FindWindow("IEFrame", Application.Caption) returns FALSE (0) and does not work, of course

then
lIEHwnd = FindWindow("IEFrame", vbNullString) returns TRUE (133500) and hence works - that is great

however
IEShowWindow = ShowWindow(lIEHwnd, 1) returns TRUE (16) but does not change the focus here or there.
So from this point of view
it does not work, and it would be nice to know why, or is it again "welcome to the windows world"
= a lot is going on and one doesn't have a clue what is happening, one thing working in one
place but not in the other, depending on the settings (in general?) ??

At last I can continue with what I was working with. Needed to know exactly where the focus between Excel
and IE is, so I can be sure where it is when writing or reading from one of them. It turned out that Windows
could suddenly change focus away from IE and that was the reason for looking around for this "set focus".

With kind regards
keymuu

**abousetta** · 11-11-2012, 01:09 AM

From my understanding of how Windows works then ShowWindow(lIEHwnd, 1) should both activate and show the window. ShowWindow(lIEHwnd, 5) should activate only without showing it (if it is hidden beneath other windows or is minimized).

In all cases, I think these issues are probably better answered in a Windows forum where you will probably find more knowledgeable people able to answer questions related to the Windows API.

If you are satisfied with the solution(s) provided, please mark your thread as Solved.

New quick method:
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Good luck.

abousetta